Roses for Roark
by Orangen
Summary: Gardenia invites a few Gym Leaders over for Valentines Day and comes to realize Candice's matchmaking abilities. MossShipping with hints of others. Semi-sequel to Of Rocks and Relationships.


_Disclaimer_: Still don't own Pokémon.

_Author's Note_: Couldn't resist doing another Moss Shipping fic, since it's so cute. And although I'm not fond of Valentine's Day, I had a really good idea for a V-Day fic, coming from (once again) Serebii's Moss Shipping thread… It's an idea I brought up though. So there. Although there are a few things I didn't come up with in here too. And I guess this can be a sequel to "Of Rocks and Relationships," sort of, because there are a couple of mentions to it in here. Like Candice's Glaceon for example.

**Roses for Roark**

"Roserade! Where did you leave the—"

"…Rade."

Gardenia sighed as she darted around the gym. She was inviting Roark and a few other Gym Leaders over for Valentine's Day, and Roserade was helping her set up. Admittedly, the Grass-type was a lot better at keeping track of things than her trainer was.

Currently, Roserade was sliding the last of several heart-shaped boxes of chocolate across the table to Gardenia. The Gym Leader had set up a few brightly colored tables in her gym, though it was a bit crowded due to the way she'd set the gym's décor up. Gardenia sighed in relief.

"Thanks. Now I just need to find…"

"Rose."

Roserade rolled a permanent marker over to Gardenia, and the brunette grinned sheepishly as she uncapped it. She hastily scrawled _Roark, Candice, Volkner, Byron,_ and _Fantina_ on the respective boxes and recapped the pen.

To be quite honest, she wasn't entirely sure how she'd ended up inviting Byron and Fantina… Well, Fantina had probably heard from Candice, and Byron from Roark, and things were actually pretty self-explanatory from there.

"All right. Now, I left Roark's other gift in my back room, right?"

"Rose!"

The Grass-Type nodded and grinned mischievously as she waved her roses around, a few of the blue-and-pink petals falling to the floor. Gardenia blushed slightly as she put her hands on her hips.

"Roserade! You know I only got him the roses as thanks for hanging out with me that one time!"

"Ra—ade," Roserade replied in a sing-song voice, as if to say, "If you say so…"

"No, really! Now, I'm going to go find the cups!"

As Gardenia huffed and walked away, Roserade smirked again. Oh, there were plenty of things the impish Pokémon could do to tease her trainer that day…

- - -

"G-Gardenia? I hope I'm not too early…"

Gardenia sighed in relief as she bustled around the room after letting Roark in. True, he was the first one there, but he wasn't actually all that early (he was only a few minutes ahead of time). And, knowing Volkner, Candice would be having a hard time trying to drag him away from Sunyshore's Gym anyway…

"No, you're good. Hey, set that on the table over there, will you?"

"All right."

Roark set a decently-sized box of what Gardenia assumed was more chocolate onto one of the tables near the front of the room. He scratched the back of his neck as he looked up, and grinned embarrassedly.

"So… Um, is there anything else I can do?"

"Oh! Wait here, I have some more stuff I still have to get out."

Gardenia turned toward her back room to get a few more decorations. Roserade, however, popped out from behind a tree before Gardenia could take another step, giving her trademark mischievous grin.

"Roserade, not now," Gardenia groaned, reaching for her Pokéball.

"Gardenia, is something wrong?"

Gardenia turned around again, to see a very confused Roark. While Roserade folded her arms, Gardenia sighed and shook her head.

"Nothing," she answered. Then, she added to Roserade, "Behave, okay?"

Gardenia hurried to the back of the gym and opened the door to the small room. Sighing, she looked over her shoulder as she grabbed a box of decorations. Roserade was apparently teasing Roark, as she was waving her roses around while the redhead blushed. This would be a long party if Roserade kept this up…

- - -

"Sorry we're late, Gardenia!"

Gardenia and Roark were hanging the last few heart-shaped ornaments from the tree branches as Candice burst into the gym, followed slowly by Volkner. Behind them were Byron and Fantina, grinning apologetically.

"Hi, Candice!" Gardenia greeted, sliding down from the branch she was on. Fortunately, it wasn't that high off the ground, so she landed on her feet. She then turned back to Roark, who had been on the same branch, and helped him down slowly.

"Hey, it looks cute in here," Candice commented, looking around. "Where can I put this, by the way?"

She held up the jar of punch she was carrying, and Gardenia pointed towards the table she'd set the cups up on. As Candice set the jar down, she grinned and grabbed a cup.

"So…now what?" she asked.

"Well, I have gifts! And a few games. Hey, Roserade, go in the back room and get my Valentines Bingo box, okay?"

"Rose!"

Roserade winked as she headed to the still-open back room, and Gardenia sighed as she poured herself a cup of Candice's punch. Peering over the rim of her cup, she pointed to the table where she'd set the chocolate.

"So, while's she's doing that, I have chocolate over there for you."

"Yay!"

The rest of the group laughed as Candice cheered. As they untied the ribbons on the heart-shaped boxes, Gardenia sighed in relief. So far, so good, at least as far as Roserade was concerned…

- - -

"Bingo!"

So far, the group had played three rounds of Valentine's Bingo. Roserade had held up cards indicating which tile to set the heart-candy tokens on (the cards were four-by-four squares reading LOVE instead of BINGO), and Candice had won each of the three rounds. She grinned as she opened the cheap plastic ring Roserade threw at her, and then tossed it to Gardenia.

"Here, Gardenia! You can have it!"

Candice had already won a small, heart-shaped bottle of perfume and an extra box of candy, which she'd shared with Volkner. The perfume had gone to Fantina, and apparently Candice didn't care for the ring either.

"Thanks, Candice."

"Rose…"

Roserade sighed dramatically and sat down amidst the bingo cards. She looked over at Candice and Volkner's half-eaten box of candy, trying to look thoughtful as she then looked at Roark and Gardenia.

"Roserade!" Gardenia hissed. She then cleared her throat a bit unnecessarily loudly. "Um, I mean, let's pause for drinks?"

"Sure," Candice approved.

Peering around the pile of bingo prizes, Roserade got up and resignedly dusted herself off. Fortunately, nobody was paying attention to her as they filed over to the drink table. Giggling, she tiptoed over to the back room one more time…

- - -

"Um, Gardenia?"

"Yeah, Roark?"

Gardenia took a sip of her punch and leaned against the table. Roark smiled a bit embarrassedly as he set his cup down.

"Thanks for inviting me."

"Hey, no prob. You really need to get out more anyway, you know? The other day was pretty fun…"

Meanwhile, as Roark and Gardenia continued their conversation, Byron tapped his chin thoughtfully. He, Fantina, Candice, and Volkner were a few feet away, holding cups of punch as well. Admittedly, though, Fantina and Candice were preoccupied trying to get Volkner to even take a sip of his drink.

"Oh, it's all right, dear."

"_Yeah_, Volkner. It's not like I put anything in it this time," Candice added, rolling her eyes.

"_This_ time?" Volkner replied, albeit a bit sarcastically.

"Yeah, _this_ time—hey, Byron, what are you looking at?"

"Hm? Oh. Roark looks a bit more relaxed than usual, wouldn't you say?"

"Yeah, now that you mention it," Candice frowned. "So does Gardenia. Hey, is Roark_ blushing_?"

"He is," Byron mused. "Hm…"

"I think you're thinking what I'm thinking."

"And what are you thinking…?"

At that moment, before Candice could speak again, Roserade tiptoed out of the back room, holding several roses. The two schemers looked at each other and grinned.

"I'm thinking what Roserade's thinking. Hey, Roserade…"

"Rade?"

The Grass-Type seemed to have caught on to Candice's idea as she looked up at her. Grinning, the dark-haired Gym Leader took out a Pokéball of her own.

"Look… I need you and Glaceon to…"

- - -

"No, Candice, I am_ not_ going to throw heart-shaped confetti over Roark and Gardenia."

"Why?" Candice demanded as Volkner folded his hands behind his back. "Please?"

"Don't worry, darling, I believe Glaceon and Roserade have things under control," Fantina commented as she grinned at Byron.

"Indeed."

Fantina's version of "under control," however, wasn't exactly most people's idea of normal. Glaceon had the roses clamped in her mouth and was rapidly darting towards Roark and Gardenia, who were still at the punch table. Roserade was tailing her closely, pretending to be upset.

"Ra—ade!" she cried.

"Ceon!" was the muffled reply as Glaceon grinned over her shoulder.

The Ice-type darted forward again, "accidentally" bumping into Gardenia's knee. Blinking, Gardenia looked down and grinned.

"Oh, hi, Glaceon… Wait, where did you get those?"

She frowned, blushing beet red as she realized that Glaceon had the roses she was going to give to Roark. Roserade then caught up, panting, and faked an innocent look. Gardenia shot the pair a glare and covered her face. She never blushed, so why was she now? The roses were just a thank-you gift, after all…

"Gardenia? Are you okay?"

Roark tapped her on the shoulder, sounding genuinely concerned. Gardenia peeked over her fingertips at him, and realized he was blushing slightly as well. Sighing, Gardenia slowly took the roses out of Glaceon's mouth, and the Ice-Type looked proud of herself as she and Roserade scampered away.

"Well, I was gonna give these to you anyway… To say thanks for hanging out with me. It was really fun."

"Really?" Roark's blush darkened as he took the roses. "I-I don't know what to say…"

"Heh, you could start with _thanks_," Gardenia said, grinning slowly.

"Um, thanks," Roark answered, smiling sheepishly.

"Aw, how cute!"

Candice suddenly flopped over the tree branch above Roark and Gardenia, hanging by her knees and emptying a tub of aforementioned heart-shaped confetti. Gardenia's face turned red again, this time more out of anger than embarrassment.

"Candice! I was gonna throw that over you and Volkner!"

Candice giggled as she pulled herself up. "Too late. Besides, you two looked so cute. I couldn't help it. Right, Byron?"

Byron grinned and waved from the other side of the room, and quickly ducked behind a tree as Roark blinked in confusion.

"Wait… You guys… planned this?" he asked.

"Yep!" Candice grinned slyly. Her voice then dropped to a whisper. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have two other people to hook up."

Giggling again, she hopped down from the tree branch and snuck back over to the other side of the room. Gardenia sighed as she watched Candice creep away, but then looked back at Roark.

"So. Now that we're 'hooked up,' according to Candice, wanna share some chocolates or something?"

"Sure."

The pair chuckled and unwrapped another nearby box of chocolate.

- - -

"Ah, our work here is done."

Candice raised a cup of punch to Roserade and Glaceon and took a sip. The two Pokémon grinned in response, while Volkner sighed.

Gardenia and Roark were still over at the punch table, sharing candy and laughing. Byron and Fantina similarly had a box of chocolate between them, but were sitting under a tree a few feet away and talking quietly.

"This is your idea of work?"

"Aw, Volkner, you're no fun," Candice pouted.

"I prefer to call it sane, thank you."

"Come on. Everybody else is being all… Valentine-y."

"All right, all right."

Volkner smiled reluctantly as Candice cheered and grabbed him by the hand. Admittedly, listening to her chatter was far less boring than sitting around watching everyone else eat…


End file.
